


Contagious

by KaT_John_Adams



Category: humans are space orcs - Fandom
Genre: Humans are space orcs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27033931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaT_John_Adams/pseuds/KaT_John_Adams
Summary: I realize this title might be concerning given *gestures* everything. But I promise it has nothing to do with disease <3
Kudos: 19





	Contagious

Planet EXS0639B **“Spite”**

The urPoyn and Union fleets butted heads in deep orbit, and the ground teams slung hot death through shattered streets and buildings, each stubbornly unwilling to relinquish the planet. The humans and several allies had colonized the planet a few decades ago - or rather the humans had aggressively terraformed the rock that had previously been hostile even to extremophile species and invited their neighbors over.

The result was a now mostly green and blue-ish planet that the humans were emotionally devoted to, and the urPoyn saw as potential free real estate. The Union had mostly tried to avoid the urPoyn but the terran members had vocally opposed giving ground. While in some cases calmer heads prevailed, on this little ball called _Spite_ by the humans who’d occupied it, “calm” was not a common part of the lexicon.

Sgt. Fellsway jolted and he seemed to trip on nothing, falling to the cracked plascrete with a grotesque thud. The Lieutenant narrowed his eyes and growled through his face shield. “C’mon, you sunnuvabich. _Move_ , damn you.” Sgt. Fellsway seemed to hear the muttered order and shrugged against the polymer/aggregate surface, trying to get up. “He’s alive. _Fuck_. Bevvy! Loim! Go get his dumb ass! Squad! Cover ‘em!” The squad popped around their various improvised covers and sprayed bursts of armor-piercing explosive fletchets towards the cover held by the urPoyn. 

The lithe bodies covered in felt-like fur cringed behind bombed-out buildings. Some stood to fire back and found the fletchets had limited self-guidance, set for motion. Their armor didn’t hold and bodies exploded within the suits designed to protect them. If it weren’t for their horrific numbers, the urPoyn wouldn’t stand a chance against the endless human ingenuity for new and better forms of violence. 

Bevvy and Loim grabbed their fallen comrade and began dragging him back to better cover. An urPoyn shock trooper stood and for his bravery never felt the fletchet pass cleanly through his head without even detonating, blowing a hole in the wall behind him instead. He fell and his rifle fired off a burst of self-propelled rounds. One of the heavy slugs slid under the hem of Bevvy’s back plate, lodging in his kidney. Loim felt Fellsway grow heavy and saw Bevvy hit the ground. She started to reach for the other soldier but he rolled to his side and drew his pistol, sending shuddering coughs of 6mm magnetically accelerated slugs back at the enemy. 

“Go! I’ll cover you!” 

Loim shook her head. “We don’t leave each other!” the Nevaran shouted back. She’d been fighting with humans long enough to know that survival to these people did not matter as much as their pack bond. And humans, as they liked to say, were a bad influence.

“Just go and come back, you can’t grab us both!”

Loim nodded. That was reasonable. She pushed herself to pull the sergeant back towards relative safety and turned back to get Bevvy, but two other squad mates had already rushed in. Sgt. Yanis took an urPoyn slug to the arm for their efforts, but only a fragment got through the overbuilt human armor. Most of the union adopted human-like armor and weapons when possible for just that reason. “We’re the space orcs. Trust us. Nothing kills us like each other. We’re good at this.” After hearing that years ago, she understood humans so much better. Their grim humor was a coping mechanism, true, but also _They Were Just Like That_.

The Lieutenant tapped his com. “ _Sierra_ this is _Echo_. We’ve got three wounded needing–Shut _up_ Yanis you’re _going!_ –exfil. Zone is very hot. Roughly a metric fuck-ton of urPoyn chewin' on our knees here, but we’re holdin' the line. We need Peejays a thousand feet behind us, over.”

The Sierra base communication officer’s voice came back, smooth and calmly focused as ever. “ _Echo_ , _Sierra_. Copy three wounded, scrambling a team. Mechanism of injuries?”

Loim fired a burst of fletchets at the roof top a block away as urPoyn came to the ledge. Two bodies fell and she let her rifle burp off another set of the deadly little darts. Blood, flesh, fur, and armor frag rained from the building. The lieutenant finished talking to Coms and shouted again. “Loim! Kelly! Boise! Putz! Grab Bevvy and Fellsway and get them to the Peejays. Yanis, cover ‘em!” Yanis looked about to argue but the lieutenant held up a fist, human for “Stop”. He grimaced. “They need two on each wounded and one to go in the front and make sure they don’t walk into an urPoyn micronet. Protect them and go let the Peejays get you back to base and patched up.” 

Yanis snapped off an easy salute. “Fuck you, too, boss.”

The Lieutenant smiled back. “Watch my idiots, for me.”

The sergeant grinned and waved at the named soldiers, who grabbed the wounded and started working their way back from the combat zone. The sounds of fighting dropped in volume fairly quickly, and the group of seven troops found themselves at the landing zone for the peejays without incident. The assault shuttle’s cloak ripped away as it broke fifty feet and the thrusters, old-fashioned but reliable, blew dust and grit across the square. Four peejays jumped out as soon as the vehicle touched the plascrete and made their way towards the injured, two aiming their weapons at the surrounding areas, two aiming their weapons at the soldiers. 

“Muzzles at the dirt, folk. Are the injured disarmed?”

“All but me,” replied Yanis. “Stripped of ammo and weapons. Here’s their’s and mine.” He passed one of the Peejays the three rifles, and the pistols stuffed together in an ammo dump pouch.

“Thanks, Sergeant. Jeck, Miller, load the wounded. Sergeant, come with me please. The rest of you stay here for the next shuttle.”

Yanis and the other four standing soldiers froze. “What ‘next shuttle’?”

The lead Peejay grimaced. “Your Lieutenant called it ‘dark’. They’re surrounded and can’t exfil. We’re to pull you out.” 

Yanis scowled. “Motherfucker must have switched channels on us.”

Loim frowned, but then her expression, such that Nevaran physiology allows, hardened. “Well, in that case, he couldn’t issue us any orders, could he?”

The Sergeant smiled. “No, he couldn’t.”

The Peejay looked at the five standing soldiers and shook his head. “I’m not one to talk, but you shouldn’t go back there.”

Loim flashed a toothy grin, suddenly reminding her human companions that her species had very sharp teeth. “You humans rub off on people.” With that, she retrieved her weapons and turned from the Peejay and started jogging back to where they’d left the rest of their squad. The Peejay watched the other four do the same, running back into the firefight, before turning and boarding the shuttle.

“PJ4, this is PJ3, cancel your run. Your lift ran back into the fight.”

Com’s usually even voice crackled over the line with more than a bit of edge to it. “Repeat that, PJ3?”

The Medic shrugged at the voice. “The team decided not to evac and instead returned to the fight to attempt extraction. Since they’re still on the original channel, guess they never got any orders to leave.”

“Like hell!” The Medic grinned at Com’s frustration. “Fine. Just … fucking fine." The Jerula officer sigh with audible frustration. "PJ3, PJ4, get your asses back here and get ready to turn back around; I’m scrambling _Hotel_ Squad to go get their stupid asses. Dammit all, why are you humans like this?”

The medic grinned wider as he stepped into the shuttle as it lifted from the ground. “Actually, it was the Nevaran’s idea.”

Coms was silent for a moment. “You humans are contagious.”


End file.
